Cyprus Lives in Love and Strife

The island of Cyprus, tucked into a corner of the Mediterranean
Sea, is one of those flash points of ethnic conflict that
periodically threaten the peace of the world. Almost daily, Greeks
and Turks hurl insults at each other across a long, thin line
patrolled by a handful of United Nations troops. But for the
millions of tourists who flock to its beautiful beaches in the
shadow of picturesque fortifications, Cyprus remains a carefree
island of love and beauty.

In
ancient times, the sanctuary of "foam-born" Aphrodite, worshiped as
the goddess of love, attracted pilgrims to Cyprus from all over the
civilized world. But Cretans and Assyrians, Phoenicians and
Egyptians, Persians, Greeks, Romans and Byzantines, Arabs and
crusaders, Genoese and Venetians, Turks and British, all exploited
the island. The Greeks first came in about the 12th century B.C.,
and gradually imposed their language and culture.

In A.D. 1571 the Ottoman Turks took Cyprus from the Venetians.
Then, in the middle of the 20th century, Greek Cypriots, led by
Greek Orthodox archbishop Makarios, called for union with Greece.
Turks on Cyprus and in Turkey were adamantly opposed.

Finally,
in 1960, Greeks and Turks accepted a painful compromise. Cyprus
became an independent republic, with Archbishop Makarios as its
first president, but with protections for the rights of the Turkish
minority. In 1974 a Greek military officers' plot to murder
Makarios failed, but not before the Turkish government had seized
the opportunity to occupy a third of the island, stopping at a line
that to this day divides Cyprus into Greek and Turkish
communities.

Meanwhile, fueled by tourist money, a building boom has been in
progress on both sides of the line. In barely a generation Cyprus
has gone through a process that in most of Western Europe took 200
years. Surely the fun-loving Aphrodite would be pleased to see so
many of her modern-day devotees plunging into the very
Mediterranean that gave her birth.